In the petroleum industry, a production well test is the execution of a set of planned data acquisition activities to broaden the knowledge and understanding of well productivity, fluid properties (e.g., hydrocarbon mix) and characteristics of the underground reservoir where the hydrocarbons reside. Cold, low rate, slug flow heavy oil wells have traditionally been production tested using batch separation process based in-line metering systems. These systems have large footprints; require regular maintenance and some of the batch process systems are open systems, which are typically subject to additional environmental regulations.
What is needed is a closed loop automatic well test (AWT) system and process having low operational and maintenance costs with improved gauging precision and accuracy over the existing batch separation process based AWTs.